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At Flevokust Haven industrial estate in Lelystad, JYSK's tenth distribution center will be built. In between the steel construction, logistics installations and building activities, Van Erven Bouwkundige Brandpreventie is taking care of a part that is hardly visible, but is decisive for the safety of the building: the fire-resistant provisions.
Gerrit van Erven has been working in structural fire prevention for over thirty years. After years of working as a company manager at various companies, he decided to start his own business last year. Through main contractor Willy Naessens Nederland and partner Vrolijk, he was asked to join the project in Lelystad. “This is a nice and big assignment for us,” says Van Erven. “The request originally consisted of fireproofing the trusses and the administration office.”
Van Erven coats steel structures with fire-resistant plates so that they retain their load-bearing capacity longer in the event of a fire. The requirements for the project were high. “For the trusses, we had to achieve 120 minutes of fire resistance,” he says.”
These requirements require careful preparation. The protection required depends, among other things, on the critical steel temperature. “Often you use a standard value over the entire project, but here the structural engineer determined the critical temperature for each steel section. As a result, you have to keep revisiting what cladding thickness is needed.”
Van Erven works with fire-resistant sheets from Promat. Depending on the profile and type, the number of sides to be covered, the critical steel temperature and the fire requirement, the thickness varies from as much as 20 millimeters to even a double layer of sheet materials. “If steel is left unprotected, a structure can quickly collapse in a fire,” Van Erven points out.
Implementation in a project of this size also brings practical challenges. The work takes place at great heights, sometimes up to fourteen meters. Before the start, Van Erven therefore organized a toolbox meeting with the mechanics. “Working at height requires extra attention to safety. We therefore discussed the regulations and measures to work safely with aerial work platforms.” Coordination with other parties on the construction site also went smoothly. “You work with many disciplines at the same time. Vrolijk managed that well here.”
